The present invention relates to a retractile pen, and more particularly to a pen having a push button, by moving which along two guide slots correspondingly provided on a clip and an outer barrel of the pen, an inner barrel may be moved relative to the outer barrel to expose or retract a writing tip. And, when the writing tip is in the exposed position, the clip is locked by the push button to the outer barrel and a user is therefore reminded of the exposed writing tip to avoid making an ink spot on a pocket holding the pen.
There are a variety of retracting structures designed for pens, so that the pens have an adjustable overall length. U.S. Pat. No. 6,276,855 B1 discloses a retractile pen, and Taiwanese New Utility Model Patent No. 136892 discloses a retractile pen having a retractable and rotatable barrel. The pens disclosed in these patents all have a barrel that may be shortened for conveniently positioning in a small pocket or extended for writing comfortably. There are also pens not provided with a cap but having a retractable writing tip that may be exposed for writing or retracted for storage. When a user clamps a retractile pen to a pocket without retracting the exposed writing tip, the exposed writing tip would undesirably make an ink spot on the pocket, and the ink spot is normally uneasy to remove.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide an improved retractile pen that would remind a user of an exposed writing tip before the pen could be clamped to a pocket with a clip of the pen, and therefore avoids an ink-spotted pocket.
To achieve the above object, the retractile pen of the present invention mainly includes an outer barrel, an inner barrel movably located in the outer barrel, and a clip connected to a rear end of the outer barrel. The inner barrel is provided near a rear end with a retaining hole having a retaining bolt elastically received therein. A first and a second guide slot are correspondingly provided on the clip and the outer barrel. A push button is connected to the retaining bolt via a connecting bar downward extended from an expanded head straddling the first guide slot. When the push button is depressed and slid along the first guide slot, the inner barrel and accordingly a writing tip at a front end thereof are brought via the engaged retaining bolt and connecting bar to extended from or retracted into the outer barrel. When the inner barrel is in the extended position and the writing tip is exposed from the outer barrel, the push button located at a front end of the first guide slot locks the clip to the outer barrel and prevents the pen from clamping to a pocket with the clip, and therefore reminds a user of the exposed writing tip to avoid making any ink spot on the pocket.
According to the present invention, the push button movably located above the clip of the retractile pen may have dimensions and configuration specially designed to facilitate pushing or sliding of the push button by a user. Moreover, the push button may be provided with different patterns, letters, etc. to serve as advertising means.